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I posted about REITs sliding yesterday. It's happening again today. The news about Macerich and Developers Diversified doesn't seem to be helping. DDR is down almost 12 percent and Macerich down nearly 16 percent as I write this. But the declines are across the board. General Growth is the only retail REIT in positive territory, up 3.3 percent for the day. The losses are not isolated to retail REITs. The Morgan Stanley REIT index is down 9 percent today. But the losses do seem to be more acute at many retail REITs.

I imagine the grim retail sales figures are playing into this. But is there more at work?

Update: I just did a little math. The Morgan Stanley REIT index closed on Friday, Sept. 19 at 913.61 — its highest point since June. That weekend, was when the credit crunch morphed into full-fledged crisis mode; Lehman wasn't bailed out and it was a couple days prior to Bank of America agreeing to buy Merrill Lynch.